Countdown
Countdown is a Toadish game show involving word and number tasks. It is broadcast on TBC 4 and is presented by Blue Toad, assisted by Yellow Toad, with regular lexicographer Toadette. A celebrity guest appears alongside Toadette every week in Dictionary Corner. Origins Countdown is based on the British game show of the same name and the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres (Numbers and Letters), created by Armand Jammot. The format was brought to Britain by Marcel Stellman, a Belgian record executive, who had watched the French show, believing it could be popular overseas. Yorkshire Television purchased the format and commissioned a series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which was to be a spin-off of their regional news programme Calendar. These shows were only broadcast in the Yorkshire area. An additional pilot episode was made, with a refined format, although it was never broadcast. A new British television channel, Channel 4, was due to launch in November 1982, and bought the newly renamed Countdown on the strength of this additional episode. Countdown was the first programme to be broadcast on the new channel. Format Contestants compete in three different rounds. They are * Letters round - The contestant in control chooses between two stacks of letter tiles, one containing vowels and the other containing consonants. The assistant (Yellow Toad) reveals the top tile from that stack and places it on the board. This is done nine times, and the final grouping must contain at least three vowels and four consonants. the contestant then has 30 seconds to form the longest single word they can, using the nine revealed letters. The contestant declares the word that is formed and scores points. The rounds end with Dictionary Corner revealing the longest words or any unusual ones that can be formed from the letters. * Numbers round - The contestant in control chooses six of 24 shuffled face-down number tiles. The contestant decides how many large numbers are to be used, from none to all four, after which the six tiles are randomly drawn and placed on the board. A random three-digit target number is generated by an electronic machine. The contestants have 30 seconds to work out a sequence of calculations with the numbers whose final result is as close to the target number as possible. * Conundrum - The final round of the game is the Countdown Conundrum, in which the contestants are shown a combination of two or three words with a total of nine letters. They have 30 seconds to form a single word using all the letters, and must buzz in to respond (a bell for the champion, a buzzer for the challenger). Each contestant is allowed only one guess, and the first to answer correctly scores 10 points. The rules of Countdown are derived from those of the original British version and the French show Des chiffres et des lettres. Spin-offs A variant of Countdown also airs on TBC 4. 8 Out of 10 Plushies Does Countdown, a crossover between Countdown and the show 8 Out of 10 Plushies. The show has Toadsworth as the host along with Mario as the permanent contestant and PG Tips Monkey as the team captain. Yellow Toad and Toadette fill their normal roles, with Moad as Yellow Toad's assistant. The show uses the same rules as the standard show, but with comedy and humor added in to it.